Usage

In literature:

With a gimlet bore holes at points A, B, C, and D. Connect these holes with a pencil line as a guide for cutting.

"Construction Work for Rural and Elementary Schools" by Virginia McGaw

He rushed into the chief ironmonger's and bought a pair of skates and a gimlet.

"Oswald Bastable and Others" by Edith Nesbit

Now lend me your gimlet just a minute!

"Donald and Dorothy" by Mary Mapes Dodge

Then he quietly drew a gimlet from his pocket and bored a hole in the door.

"A Nest of Spies" by Pierre Souvestre

At all times he used his eyes, which were sharp as gimlets.

"Old Man Curry" by Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan

Just for a moment he looked into the gimlet eyes of the other.

"The Twins of Suffering Creek" by Ridgwell Cullum

In some way they suggest winged gimlets.

"Under the Maples" by John Burroughs

She turned around in joyful relief to encounter a pair of gimlet-like black eyes in the face of an old woman.

"The Camerons of Highboro" by Beth B. Gilchrist

I held my breath as I felt those gimlet eyes of his boring into me.

"Astounding Stories, May, 1931" by Various

But that was a poor excuse for being without a gimlet.

"Our Young Folks--Vol. I, No. II, February 1865" by Various

She replied to his tyrannic voice with one as hard and stabbing as a gimlet.

"Coquette" by Frank Swinnerton

But by a coincidence the doctor came, gimlet-eyed.

"A Diary Without Dates" by Enid Bagnold

As you say, I have changed; but his eyes are like gimlets, they'd pierce a stone wall.

"The House by the Lock" by C. N. Williamson

Here she knelt in another outburst of tears, while the gimlet-eyed storekeeper explained.

"Bred of the Desert" by Marcus Horton

A bad gimlet has spoilt many a day's skating.

"The Hills and the Vale" by Richard Jefferies

A gimlet taken from its handle and secured to the ramrod, refused to take hold.

"Si Klegg, Book 4 (of 6) Experiences Of Si And Shorty On The Great Tullahoma Campaign" by John McElroy

Some writer has said that a fixed idea is a sort of gimlet; every year gives it another turn.

"Toilers of the Sea" by Victor Hugo

MRS. JANE GIMLET TO MRS. JUDITH PUNCH.

"Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853)" by Various

His eyes were like fiery gimlets.

"The Time Mirror" by Clark South

***

In poetry:

O little gimlets—
What holes this papery day is already full of!
He his been burning me with cigarettes,
Pretending I am a negress with pink paws.
I am myself. That is not enough.

"The Jailer" by Sylvia Plath

Old saws and gimlets but its appetite whets,
Like the world-famous bark of Peru;
There's nothing so hard that the bird will discard,
And nothing its taste will eschew
That you
Can give that long-legged Emeu!